The Italians know the secret of life. Here is an article that everyone, everywhere, can learn from, it is about the Italian immigrants in Roseto, Pennsylvania, USA, they had ZERO crime and they had ZERO people on welfare, read this article and you will see that there is a better way to do things than what is happening now, plus the people of Roseto, Pennsylvania, were healthier and they had fewer heart attacks. And they did it without any help from the government (although in a nation "Of the people, by the people, for the people" the government is us, and the government is part of our team, we in the USA are self governing). And we always knew that it was healthy to go to parties, and to throw parties!

People are nourished by other people. The importance of social networks in health and longevity has been confirmed again by study of a close-knit Italian-American community in Roseto, Pennsylvania. At first blush, Roseto seems a diorama of what once was the nation's ideal lifestyle-neighbors who looked after one another, civic-minded joiners and doers who formed the grass roots of American-style democracy. It seems to showcase those virtues that have all but disappeared elsewhere in what has become what we are now--a nation of strangers.

At one time the village came to be a living laboratory demonstrating that neighborliness is good not just for the body politic (community) for the human body (self) as well. Now Roseto is changing, becoming a community of suburban commuters with satellite dishes, fenced-in yards, and expensive cars.

Thirty years earlier, medical researchers were drawn to Roseto by a bewildering statistic: in defiance of medical logic, Rosetans seemed nearly immune to one of the most common causes of death. They died of heart attacks at a rate only half of the rest of America. Doctors were mystified in that residents led what medical textbooks predicted would be short lives.

The men of the village smoked and drank wine freely. They spent their days in backbreaking, hazardous labor, working 200 feet down in nearby slate quarries. At home, the dinner tables each evening were laden with traditional Italian food, modified for local ingredients in ways that would drive a dietitian to despair.

The Mediterranean diet, with its use of olive oil rather than animal fat, has been touted lately for health benefits. But, poor immigrants couldn't afford to import cooking oil from their homeland and instead fry their sausages and brown their meatballs in lard. Yet, the resulting hefty bodies contained unusually health hearts. Why?

.....

II. A RESEARCH OPPORTUNITY

Study of the "Roseto Effect" began with a chance conversation over a couple of beers. A local physician happened to mention to the head of medicine at the University of Oklahoma that heart disease seemed much less prevalent in Roseto than in adjoining Bangor, occupied by non-Italians.

When first studied in 1966, Roseto's cardiac mortality traced a unique graph. Nationally, the rate rises with age. In Roseto, it dropped to near zero for men aged 55-64. For men over 65, the local death rate was half the national average.

The study quickly went beyond death certificates, to poke, prod, and extensively interview the Rosetans. Instead of helping to solve the puzzle, all the data simply ruled out any genetic or other physical sources of the Rosetan's resistance to heart disease. Two statistics about Roseto were eye-catching: Both the crime rate and the applications for public assistance were zero.

.....

III. HEALTH AND SOCIAL RELATIONSHIPS

Subsequent study showed that all of the houses contained three generations of the family. Rosetans took care of their own. Instead of putting the elderly "on the shelf," they were elevated "to the Supreme Court." The scientists were led to conclude that the Roseto Effect was caused by something that could not be seen through the microscope, something beyond the usual focus of medical researchers.

It seemed that those groaning dinner tables offered nourishment for the human spirit as well as the body. In fact, all of the communal rituals--the evening stroll, the many social clubs, the church festivals that were occasions for the whole community to celebrate--contributed to the villagers' good health.

In "The Power of Clan," an updated report on studies by Stewart Wolf, a physician, and John Bruhn, a sociologist, cover a broad period of time from 1935 to 1984. They found that mutual respect and cooperation contribute to the health and welfare of a community and its inhabitants, and that self indulgence and lack of concern for others exert opposite influences.

Tracing the history of Roseto, the sociologists found that early immigrants were shunned by the English and Welsh who dominated this little corner of eastern Pennsylvania. According, the Rosetans turned inward and built their own culture of cooperation and as Wolf and Bruhn noted, "radiated a kind of joyous team spirit as they celebrated religious festivals and family landmarks."

"People are nourished by other people," said Wolf, noting that the characteristics of tight-knit community are better predictors of healthy hearts than are low levels of serum cholesterol or tobacco use. He explained that an isolated individual may be overwhelmed by the problems of everyday life. Such a person internalized that feeling as stress which, in turn, can adversely affect everything from blood pressure to kidney function. That, however, is much less likely to be the outcome when a person is surrounded by caring friends, neighbors and relatives. The sense of being supported reduces stress and the disease stress engenders.

"We looked at the social structure of healthy communities," Wolf said, "and found that they are characterized by stability and predictability. In those communities, each person has a clearly defined role in the social scheme."

Into the 1960s, Roseto was the epitome of predictability and conformity. In clothing, housing or automobiles, any display of wealth was taboo. Women knew that, from their teens on, they would work in one of the many small blouse factories scattered throughout the village. Even the evening meal followed a rigid cycle.

"Monday" recalled 66-year old Angie Martocci, "almost everyone in town ate spezzati (a spinach and egg soup). Tuesdays, it was spaghetti and gravy (tomato sauce). Wednesday was roast chicken and potatoes. Thursday, spaghetti again. Fish on Fridays, of course. Veal and peppers on Saturday; and antipasto, meatballs and spaghetti on Sunday."

All of that conformity reduced the distance between the haves and have-nots, thereby reinforcing everyone's sense of conformity also spared Rosetans the stress that comes with freedom of choice. (My comment: the anthropologist David Maybury-Lewis in his video series Millenium that individuals in a tribal society grow up in a defined world where people know their place and their relationship to others. We grow up with freedom, he says, in a limitless world where we are often lost and terribly alone.)

Possibly the strongest conformity in the village was the work ethic. No only did everyone work here, they worked toward a common goal--a better life for their children. The reverence for work was the legacy of Roseto's first priest, Rev. Pasquale de Nisco. Arriving in 1896, De Nisco practiced what he preached. Taking up a pick and shovel, he started clearing ground next to the church to build the graveyard, where he now lies. Above all, De Nisco, whose influence is still strong in Roseto, preached education.

.....

IV. THE EFFECT FADES

In the slate quarries and blouse factories, the men and women of Roseto labored to be able to send their children to college, which they did at a rate far above the national average. By World War II, Roseto had a small white-collar class and was prospering. And of course with that, life began to change.

Wolf and Bruhn's study took place just as Roseto's golden age of community was drawing to a close. They were able to predict that Rosetans then under 30 would not long be content with their rigid, traditional lifestyle. By the '70s, homes on the outskirts of town were in the suburbanized style that had become the American norm: large single family houses, swimming pools, fenced years, country clubs, and churches outside of the community.

As people moved and achieved material success, they found those gains at the expense of traditional communal values with which they have been raised. One person said, "I'm sorry we moved; everything is modern here and we have everything I need here, except people."

The principal of the elementary school said that children's lives changed. They went from days filled with activities to lives of watching from the sidelines. She found she had to teach children how to play jacks and marbles. The strongest evidence that change had come to Roseto was in 1985 when the town's coronet band, founded in 1890, demanded for the first time to be paid for playing at the church's big festival.

As Wolf and his colleagues continued to monitor the health of the community, they noted that social change in the village was accompanied by increasing health problems. In 1971, the first heart attack death of a person less than 45 occurred in Roseto.

Nationally, the Americans' vulnerability to heart attack began to decline because of the widespread adoption of exercise programs and healthier diet. At the same time, the Rosetan's rate rose to the national average.

Roseto has lost its statistical uniqueness. Yet, it makes clear to a visitor that it retains a sense of community--one that would be the envy of almost any place else in the nation. For many families, eating remains a ritual of the communal nature of life here. On Sundays, extra chairs are drawn up and leaves are added to dinner tables all over town for a ceremony that satisfies both physical hunger and the hunger to be surrounded by people who share our lives.

At Rose's Cafe, the only restaurant remaining in town, proprietor Rose Pavan calls everyone by name. Anyone with questions about menu items is swept into the kitchen for a sample. Children, most in Catholic school uniforms, flock in for an after-school snack--just as parents did back when Rose's was Mary's Luncheonette.

A visitor is bound to come away from Rose's with a full stomach and even fuller appreciation how far the rest of us have drifted from the civic-mindedness that marked much of the nation's history.

(My comment: this article is drawn from a series done by The Chicago Tribune on America's loss of community. Other articles focused on our changing urban/suburban social fabric. They noted the social changes implied by suburban homes where the garage is in front and both parents are employed, often an hour drive away. This article was especially relevant for medical anthropology's emphasis on bio culture, the interrelationship between culture, health and disease.)

If older Rosetans are concerned that they have traveled too far down the path of materialistic fulfillment--a path that seems never to end in lasting contentment--shouldn't other Americans be at least as concerned?

We now know that people's reaction's to the same stressful experience vary widely and those who have a greater sense of control, support and satisfaction in their lives are less at risk of illness. Those who get sick most seem to view the world and their lives as unmanageable while those who stay healthy have a greater sense of coherence and control through faced with the same problems. The Rosetans, to put it in Darwinian terms, were a successful adaptation.

A wide range of illness reflects the role that ineffective coping and inadequate support play. The highest rates of tuberculosis have been found among isolated and marginal people who have little social support, although they may live in affluent neighborhoods. This article focused on heart disease, others are indicators of social life as well. These include respiratory diseases, accidents, and mental illness. Studies in England have shown that civil servants with the highest rate of death from coronary heart disease occurs amongst those with little social support. We are indeed nourished by contact with others.

.....

V. SOCIALIZING AND LONGEVITY

A study published in the British Medical Journal in 1999 found that people more than 65 who like to eat out, play cards, go to movies and take part in other social activities live an average of two ½ years longer than more reclusive people. Simply mixing with people seems to offer as great a benefit as regular exercise. Social and productive pursuits are equivalent to and independent of the merits of exercise.

In a similar study at Harvard, it was found that those who were most engaged in productive pursuits were 23 percent less likely to die than those least involved in such pursuits. When each activity was examined individually, doing a lot as opposed to not much, extended live in almost every case regardless of the activity.

Does humor matter? While it is popularly accepted that laughter speeds healing and fights disease, some researchers say that laugher isn't the best medicine after all. A review of humor research does not confirm a direct therapeutic effect of laughter.

Does love matter? In a study of 10,000 married men, it was found that-in the subsequent five years-men who felt love from their wife had significantly less angina that those that felt no love.

People who perceived themselves as socially isolated were found to be two to five times more at risk for premature death from all causes. Persons with low interpersonal conflict in their lives do best.

8 Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.

I met Nick Vujicic at the Anaheim Film Festival back in 2010, he starred in a short film titled "The Butterfly Circus," it is a great short film, and Nick is awesome. Nick was born with no arms, and no legs, but Nick still believes in God, and Nick lives a good, full life, and he is happy.

In Hollywood there used to be housing for homeless actresses, run by nuns. When a young lady would come to Hollywood to be an actress, and if she ended up homeless, then the nuns would help her for free, until she became successful, or gave up and went home, or whatever.

And hostels are good too. Like the hostel I stayed at in Rome, Italy, it was only 15 dollars a night. Hollywood needs more hostels. The tourists would love the hostels too.

On the issue of helping the homeless... The old people are getting old, and they are dying, and there needs to be a new generation of young people to step forward to help the homeless.

My friend Rose, she was the daughter of an American soldier who served in the Philippines during World War II against the Japanese, and after the war he stayed in the Philippines, and he married a Filipina woman, so Rose was automatically an American citizen. She wanted to help the USA because the USA saved the Philippines, and also she wanted to help America because her father was American, and so she came to the USA and attended college here, she attended UCLA, and then she became a school teacher in Compton, California, and she taught public school in Compton for twenty years. After she retired from teaching she went to work helping the homeless with my friend Lisa, and she helped the homeless for over thirty years, up until she died. Rose and Lisa were best friends. (Also, Rose's cousin Gloria Arroyo was President of the Philippines. Her whole family served other people.)

Lisa was born wealthy, and her father owned a banana plantation in the Philippines. Lisa is Christian, and she was taught that to those whom much is given, much is expected from, and so Lisa was raised doing public service and was raised helping others. After her father died, she sold the plantation, and she moved to America. She opened a night club in Los Angeles named "Manila Gardens" which was hugely successful. And she opened other businesses, and she invested in Real Estate, and she did some developing, and everything she touched turned to gold, everything she did was successful. Finally, after she amassed over one hundred million dollars, she retired and she went to work helping the homeless people full time. She bought houses and she filled the houses full of beds and she filled the houses full of homeless people, and she cooked and cleaned and stuff for the homeless people, and she ran everything to take care of homeless people. Some of the homeless people would help Lisa after they got healthy, they would help Lisa to help other people. My buddy Tom worked for Lisa, and many other people helped her. And Lisa and Rose would take a cooked pig to the park to feed everyone at the park for free. And on Thanksgiving Lisa and Rose would cook a thousand turkeys for the homeless. Lisa is still helping the homeless, the last that I heard Lisa has around one hundred homeless people living in her houses. But, Lisa is getting old, and new people have to rise up to do the work that Rose and Tom did, and that Lisa and others are doing, young people have to devote their lives to serving other people. The happiest people I know are the ones who devote their lives to serving other people, people who are on a mission, and whom have a life of purpose, are happiest. Young people need to learn from Lisa while Lisa is still alive to teach them. And not only here in Orange County, but in other areas, young people need to learn the joy of serving others.

Maybe someday I will travel the world with Princess Charlotte Casiraghi of Monaco donating libraries for poor children and cool stuff like that. I will do service for others in whatever ways I can. We all need to do service for others.

In Hollywood there used to be housing for homeless actresses, run by nuns. When a young lady would come to Hollywood to be an actress, and if she ended up homeless, then the nuns would help her for free, until she became successful, or gave up and went home, or whatever.

And hostels are good too. Like the hostel I stayed at in Rome, Italy, it was only 15 dollars a night. Hollywood needs more hostels. The tourists would love the hostels too.

Salute,

Tony V.

The Oban Hotel in Hollywood, on Yucca, would make a great hostel, they can fill it full of bunk beds, and people could get to take a nice hot shower and sleep in a nice comfortable bed for 15 dollars per night.

Also, one idea that I had, is that I wrote a poetry book, and I thought about making copies of my poetry book, and then paying the homeless people to go door to door in the neighborhoods selling copies of my poetry book. The homeless people could earn enough money to shower and sleep in a hostel by selling copies of my poetry book, and they could earn a little money for food, etc, depending on how many books they sell. It is an idea.

People are often unreasonable, illogical and self-centered; forgive them anyway.If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives; be kind anyway.If you are successful, you will win some false friends and some true enemies; succeed anyway.If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you; be honest and frank anyway.When you spend years building, someone could destroy it overnight;build anyway.If you find serenity and happiness, they may be jealous; be happy anyway.The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow; be good anyway.Give the world the best you have, and it may never be enough; give the world the best you have anyway.You see, in the final analysis, it is between you and God. It was never between you and them anyway.